Beiyang Fleet

The Beiyang Fleet ("Northern Ocean Fleet" in Chinese, alternatively "Northern Seas Fleet") was the most modernized navy of the late Qing Dynasty. It was created and equipped largely on the initiated of Li Hongzhang, a prominent statesman and leader of China's "self-strengthening" movement. The Beiyang Fleet was the largest navy in Asia and the 8th largest in the world leading up to the First Sino–Japanese War of 1894, during which it was destroyed by the Imperial Japanese Navy.